Project Tiger is a wildlife conservation movement initiated in India in 1973 to protect tigers. The project aims at tiger conservation in specially constituted tiger reserves representative of various regions throughout India and strives to maintain viable populations of Bengal tigers in their natural environment.
In 2008 there were more than 40 Project Tiger reserves covering an area over 37,761 km2 (14,580 sq mi). Project Tiger helped to increase the population of these tigers from 1,200 in the 1970s to 3,500 in 1990s. However, a 2008 census held by the Government of India revealed that the tiger population had dropped to 1,411. Since then the government has pledged US$153 million to further fund the project, set-up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers, and fund the relocation of up to 200,000 villagers to minimize human-tiger conflicts.
The number of tigers in India's wild has gone up by 20%, according to the latest (2011) tiger census, which has surveyed the whole of India for the first time. The census puts the population of the big cat at 1,706. There were 1,706 tigers including tigers in the Sunderbans at the last count.